It is permissible to pay court fees at later stage of proceeding

Section 149 of the Civil Procedure Code prescribes a discretionary power which empowers the Court to allow a party to make up the deficiency of court fee payable on plaint, appeals, applications, review of judgment etc. This Section also empowers the Court to retrospectively validate insufficiency of stamp duties etc. It is also a usual practice that the Court provides an opportunity to the party to pay court fee within a stipulated time on failure of which the Court dismisses the appeal. In the present case, the appellant filed an application for extension of time for remitting the balance court fee which was rejected by the learned sub Judge. It is the claim of the appellant that he was unable to pay the requisite amount of court fee due to financial difficulties. It is the usual practice of the court to use this discretion in favour of the litigating parties unless there are manifest grounds of mala fide. The Court, while extending the time for or exempting from the payment of court fee, must ensure bona fide of such discretionary power. Concealment of material fact while filing application for extension of date for payment of court fee can be a ground for dismissal. However, in the present case, no opportunity was given by the learned sub Judge for payment of court fee by the appellant which he was unable to pay due to financial constraints. Hence, the decision of the learned sub Judge is wrong and is liable to be set aside and accordingly set aside.
Reportable

Supreme Court of India

Manoharan vs Sivarajan & Ors on 25 November, 2013

Bench: Sudhansu Jyoti Mukhopadhaya, V. Gopala Gowda

Citation:(2014) 4 SCC 163

Comparative Citations:
2013 (4) KLT 828, 2013 (6) CTC 765, 2014 (1) LW 83, 2014 (2) ALT 6, 2014 (2) SCJ 222, 2014 (4) SCC 163, 2014 (3) WBLR 223, 2014 (2) CalHN 53 (SC)
CDJ 2013 SC 1008

Key words
#courtfee
#section149
#delay